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TagsBY BOB HOLT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
New Jersey Devils’ coach Pete DeBoer has kept his comments to a minimum during his team’s Eastern Conference championship series against the New York Rangers. John Tortorella generally does the same for his own reasons.
Until yesterday.
After Ranger Brandon Prust caught Anton Volchenkov in the head with an elbow in Game 3 on Saturday, DeBoer called it “Headhunting, plain and simple,” according to an Associated Press report in the Wall Street Journal.
Tortorella turned to what he called “gamesmanship” in response. He seemed to insinuate that Volchenkov stayed down on the ice longer than necessary to draw a penalty. “We tell our players to get up,” Tortorella said, according to the New York Daily News. “Maybe if our players stay down on the ice we’ll get something.” Volchenkov remained in the game.
Tortorella also charged that the Devils were setting picks during power plays to create room for Ilya Kovalchuk and prevent the Rangers from blocking his shots. DeBoer’s retort: “Comical.”
“He has to preach for his own church,” Devil goalie Martin Brodeur said of Tortorella’s remarks, according to the New York Post. “We do things that give us a chance to be successful. Some people do things that are not great, like Prust did. They called a penalty on Alexei Ponikarovsky in Game 2 that wasn’t even there.”
Prust was suspended for one game by the NHL. “Pruster’s played probably about 300-plus games without any hearings,” Tortorella said. “He’s probably one of the most honest players in the NHL."
The truth may depend on which team you support. Larry Brooks of the New York Post pointed out that there were three incidents involving hits to the head in Game 3, but only one was reviewed by the NHL after it had been replayed multiple times.
Brooks said what was plain and simple is the Prust elbow came between an unpenalized Dainius Zubrus right elbow to Anton Stralman’s face that drew blood in the first period and an unpenalized leap from behind by Zach Parise onto Michael Del Zotto’s head in the third period.
The NHL and Brendan Shanahan have consistency problems with their suspensions around the whole league. NBC used Parise’s hit as a promo for Game 4 during yesterday’s Kings-Coyotes game. “It made my head snap forward,” Rangers’ defenseman Michael Del Zotto said. “I wouldn’t want to be hit like that 10 times a game.”
Meanwhile, the Atlantic Division champion Rangers will try to answer why they have yet to take a two game lead in any series they’ve played so far, and the Devils still need a response to goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who has blanked them twice in this series, led by the Rangers 2-1.
